Reminder:
The Youth Advisory Board and the Center for Civic Values are pleased to be co-sponsoring the first ever Bill of Rights Mock Trial. The registration deadline for the Bill of Rights Mock Trial is November 4, and the competition is November 19.
For more information please refer to the October 12 posting on this blog.

ALBUQUERQUE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a lawsuit yesterday to protect the right of a Department of Health employee to post material that is critical of the Iraq war on the window in her office.

On August 22, the employee’s supervisor instructed her to remove the materials from a window that looks out onto an atrium in the Runnels Building in Santa Fe. For over a year, the employee had posted materials of similar political content without incident.

“It appears that they wanted the items removed because a senior staff meeting was to be held in the building that day,” said ACLU staff attorney George Bach. “But they didn’t seem bothered by other postings that were generally more favorable to the war effort. To us that smacks of viewpoint-based discrimination.”

In August and September, Bach sent letters to the Department of Health attorneys asking that the Department reverse its directive, but without effect. On October 20, he and ACLU Cooperating Attorney Julie Sakura said filed a lawsuit claiming violations of the employee’s First Amendment rights in State District Court.

Sakura added, “The Constitution protects speech that addresses issues of great public interest. No one would argue that the employee’s postings fail to meet that test. If others can express their opinions about the war, then she should have that right too.”

“It just doesn’t make sense to prohibit an employee of the Department of Health, of all people, from posting statistics about New Mexicans who perish in the war in Iraq,” said Bach